Read a full match report of the Europa League match between Rennes and Celtic
at Route de Lorient on Thursday October 20, 2011.

Celtic’s defenders can seem relentless in their quest to find new ways to torment their manager, but in France last night they produced a tour de force. In this case a full back, deployed in midfield to add power to that department, scored the opening goal – but put the ball behind his own goalkeeper, who was himself largely culpable.

The incident – which left spectators on both sides open-mouthed – could have sabotaged a Celtic performance that had produced the best chance of the contest not long before, but this time Neil Lennon’s players showed the spirit they displayed to come back from 3-0 down at half time to force a draw at Kilmarnock on Saturday and they were value for the equaliser scored by Joe Ledley from a Charlie Mulgrew free kick with 20 minutes remaining.

Whether it will prove to be a platform for Celtic to make the later stages of the tournament remains to be seen, but they are certainly not out of the reckoning, as many of their fans had feared would be the case on recent form. True, they have now won only one of their last seven matches including this game, but there are signs that some frailties are being remedied.

Beram Kayal, for example, turned in his most effective performance for weeks, in the aftermath of his acceptance of a deal that contracts him to the club until the summer of 2015. There was also an effective – and unforeseen – tactical ploy by Lennon which saw Cha Du-Ri pushed into right midfield and Joe Ledley withdrawn into the left back position, where he was stationed to counter the pace of Abdoulrazak Boukari.

The opening exchanges were fast and frequently frenetic, with neither side able to master stretches of possession, but eventually a pattern emerged in which Rennes shuttled the ball forward and wide at speed but created almost nothing in the way of menace. In fact, the best chance fell to Celtic, for whom Anthony Stokes had been allotted the role of lone striker.

Stokes was sometimes too eager to break through the cordon of red jerseys in front of Benoit Costil’s goal and was caught offside when a little guile would have sprung the trap. Mulgrew, though, created a splendid opportunity for the Irishman when he stepped out of central defence and found that his imediate opponents were backing off. Mulgrew strode on and when Stokes peeled to the left, found his colleague with a tidy

Stokes responded with an adept sidestep to leave Chris Mavinga stranded behind him and only Costil to beat ahead of him. He opted for power rather than a placed effort and the goalkeeper was able to tip the effort over the bar. This incremental increase in Celtic’s ambition left them all the more unprepared for what was to follow within a few minutes.

At the end of another Celtic surge, Costil had the ball in his hands and opted for a hopeful punt downfield. There was utterly no menace in the ploy as the ball bounced deep into Celtic territory with not a Rennes player remotely in the vicinity.

Cha, who had dropped back towards his own box as insurance, turned a gentle back pass into the penalty area only to find that Fraser Forster had come out to the 18 yard line and was stranded as the ball rolled beyond him and across a goal line that gaped as much as every astonished spectator in the stadium.

Afterwards, Forster admitted that he was principally to blame and Lennon said: “Fraser deserves a great deal of credit for the way he responded to the mistake. Away from home you need your goalkeeper to make big saves at crucial moments and you saw that Fraser did that later in the game.

“That was after he had hit a low as you can go, but obviously we had a chat about it at half time and he showed all the qualities which were the reason we pursued him over the summer.”

Forster’s team mates helped him immeasurably by responding to Rennes’ attempts to increase the pace after the interval with potent moves of their own as a surprisingly entertaining game expanded into an open contest. Midway through the half, the Celtic tide reached its highest point as Cha set up Stokes for a drive that Costil beat away before the South Korean tried a venomous drive that the goalkeeper blocked.

The rebound spun out to Ki Sung-Yeung but the South Korean midfielder struck his return shot too high when a touch more composure would almost certainly have brought the equaliser. In the event, Celtic did not leave empty handed, as has been so often their fate on the road in Europe.

When Mavinga fouled Cha 30 yards from goal, Mulgrew had the opportunity to put the Rennes defence under pressure with one of his trademark deliveries. He duly found Ledley towards the back post and the Welshman’s header looped over Costil to bring Celtic level.

Rennes might have edged a win in the dying moments when Jonathan Pitroipa produced a stinging overhead shot from close range. Forster, though, was as alive to this menace as he had been to a series of late efforts and redeemed himself with a save that kept Celtic level on points with their hosts and only two behind Atletico Madrid at the midway point of their group campaign.